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Thursday, 28 January 2010

Change at helm of North Down Alliance Association

North Down Alliance Association held its AGM last Wednesday night and was well attended by established and new members alike. There was an exuberant mood evident with an excitement about campaigning for the upcoming Westminster election and building on the previous year’s success in the European election.

Looking back on the previous year’s achievements, outgoing chair Neil Dickey drew attention to the successful fundraising events such as the joint-table quiz with Strangford Alliance Association, the summer fete, the barbeque and the coffee morning. He congratulated the Association on the success of significantly increasing Alliance’s vote in North Down during the European election. Neil also expressed his gratitude to local Alliance Councillors and MLA, Stephen Farry, for keeping such a high profile and for taking principled stands on difficult issues throughout the year.

At the election of officers, Neil Dickey stepped down as chair and was replaced in the role by Andrew Muir. Commenting on his election as chair Andrew Muir stated, “It is an honour to be elected as chair for North Down Alliance Association for the incoming year. Alliance is the party that is best placed to deliver a shared future for Northern Ireland. For the last 40 years it has fought for cross-community consensus and non-sectarian politics. It has prioritised bread and butter politics over the politics of orange and green.

“North Down has been traditionally one of the strongest areas for Alliance and has benefited from a high level of Alliance public representation. It is important that we build on this success in the coming year and ensure that North Down achieves the best level of representation at all levels of public life.”

Also elected into office were Jean Green as President, Neil Dickey as vice-chair, Michael Watts as secretary, Chris Mackey as treasurer, Bryan Ardill as membership secretary and Michael Bower as media officer.

After the election of officers Cllr Marsden Fitzsimons gave a short and engaging talk on the Christian heritage of Bangor.